Fickle
by Dgcakes
Summary: Dillon's been having weird dreams about a rainstorm and someone saving him. Now the city begins mysteriously raining and he knows something's coming that's going to change the fight against Venjix forever. Diggy, Kenaya, some other stuff, AU, my usual
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Don't worry, I'm not abandoning my other on-going stories. Those all have chapters I'm currently writing and just have to hammer out a few more details in before I put up for y'all. For now, you get a little bit of my run-off creativity that I have but isn't helpful for the stopping places I'm at in my other fics. :3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is my own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het. Please keep this in mind. Fic ratings exist for a reason, but I'll warn before stuff if I can.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, blah blah, AU, blah, my usual.

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><p>A cool breeze filtered through Dillon's window as he lay in bed, eyes barely lidded as he watched the numbers on his clock shift from three-fifty-nine to four. Partly, he was trying to fall back asleep, but partly, he was just trying to re-enter the dream he'd been having. It was different from his usual nightmares, and it felt like he was just starting to remember something, but not quite.<p>

As the man heard a car driving by outside, it shattered the cool silence of the night, and suddenly he remembered the scene he had been so trying to get back to. A scene that felt like a new memory – something from before Venjix had entered his life and stripped it of all that had mattered. Maybe because this had had no meaning and just felt like a childhood dream, but it was still blissful on the rare occasion that Dillon could remember it, because it was a fragment he could hold onto for a brief period of time.

_It was a rainy night in a city he couldn't quite identify. There was light flashing from cars as they drove through slick black streets, and the city hummed with the thick noise of traffic and businesses. For being so rainy, it wasn't humid, and the city shifted in leaps and bounds, no logo on a sign easy enough to read through the blur. It all flew by him quickly, but so beautiful just the same._

_Through it all, he noticed people bustling up the street in front of him. Scenes blurred and flashed and whirled like he was shifting between awareness of time and place, and before him the sidewalk seemed wobbly and infirm. He was walking running along it, feeling sick and tired, desperate to get home soon and vaguely aware of the chilled little hand held in his own._

_The city's beauty was heavy around him, and there was a weakness to his motions. Things spun around, and he felt his steps shaking, falling harder, pulling the other person along behind him. They slowed so much and he couldn't go on more. No! He had to get home! He couldn't fall now, not now, not so close! He needed to get them back. It couldn't end here..._

_As the dream started to fade and the only thing he could concentrate on being the falling rain, something black ended up blocking his view. It was a man, who despite Dillon's failing vision, was perfectly easy to view. His clothing was dark and he wore a large black leather jacket that shined with the falling rain. The man himself had long hair, but what it looked like, or even the man's skin-tone escaped memory. The only thing that was really physically clear at that point was the feel of that wet leather of the jacket as he clutched at it, begging with a voice that wouldn't work to get his sister home, that he just had a little ways more to get them there._

The scene always went black at this point, but on rare nights, like this one, Dillon could remember the voices. They hadn't been like normal voices, but each had had a strange musical quality to it that he had always equated to other things. They had been discussing something, but it was so hard to be clear on what.

"_Okay Drameer, what ARE you doing?" A voice that seemed earthy in texture flitted through the dark coating his mind. _

_Another voice came now, an ebony timbre that was both crisp and strong with warmth. "You brought humans here?"_

"_I had to!" spoke a voice sounded like rain and like music all at once. _

_Vaguely, Dillon realized that the burning cold feeling that wrapped so bitingly around his body was gone now and he was relaxed in something warm. With each of the voices he was now also starting to get scents and emotions, though each was stranger than the last._

_The first voice returned now, accompanied by a smell of fresh growing plants and new life, and spoke gently, tenderly, "I understand that you are fond of young ones, but it was their time."_

_The voice closest to him, the one like rain, seemed to give off an aura like a dark storm now, but still had a fresh clean smell like after a light shower. "Yes, because I'm just going to let some kids run into me and beg for help then just die. I thought part of this game was to be more in touch with mortals." _

"_There's a fine line between more in touch and interference," came a new voice, older sounding but in a way it also felt newer, with a hint of purity to it._

_The one nearest to him spoke now, almost violent, "Oh and I'm sure YOU'D know about interference, Angellus! How about that little princess you watch over, hm? Going to just let her perish to some horrible little malady you could easily stop? Because if you'd like, I can just provide that for you right now!"_

"_You're just being cruel now, Drameer," the voice from the beginning said again, and it was starting to become obvious that this was less a name for the person he was with and more her – he was sure it was a her speaking – saying something he could with an accent. "We all have our own mortals we are protective of. That's part of the game."_

_A higher, more teasing voice came in now, "You're the one who gifted them with death to begin with!" this one obviously just playing now, very light and airy._

"_And I who gifted them with emotions," came the strong, voice once again, accompanied by the smell of burning wood. "If he wishes to save them, I see no reason to not let him – it merely shows that our game is successful if he cares about something beyond his own realm. We shall allow him to continue and take a penalty as Andalucia had to." _

It was about this point that the words began to fade out, and usually Dillon would wake up. But not tonight. Tonight things stayed fuzzy and black for a time, but he was able to catch on to one last little tidbit. It seemed to mean nothing, but at the same time, it was almost exciting to remember just a bit more of it.

"_So, Draameer, does this mean you have chosen?"_

"_Yes. The boy will do. He will be my champion and one day he shall grow older and find himself called to my service.' _

"_I am sure he will rue the day he is subjected to the whims of a fickle god such as yourself."_

It was then that Dillon woke up, panting heavily, and staring out the window at the cool evening sky of Corinth's dome. It was just then that their automated weather system seemed to be overridden and it began to rain.


	2. A Strange Rain

**Author's Note: **Figured I'd write up more than one chapter of this so I could post them in a reasonable amount of time.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is my own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het. Please keep this in mind. Fic ratings exist for a reason, but I'll warn before stuff if I can.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, blah blah, AU, blah, my usual

**Extra Extra: **Thank you to Lovesrival and Pales for being some of my first readers/reviewers on this fic :3 FF didn't wanna let me reply to reviews but I am very glad to get a good response so soon.

This version of the chapter has been heavily edited to remove how I wrote Flynn's accent – that was just too incomprehensible to leave in.

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><p>When Dillon first came downstairs, he found most of the team already up and seated in the kitchen rather sleepily. Summer hadn't bothered doing her eye-makeup, so the droop to her eyes and the slight circles under them were visible. Scott was solemn faced but also looked like his head was trapped in a fog he couldn't shake. Flynn seemed decently awake, but he was also just leaning lazily on the bar, his stool tilted forward so his hips jutted out at an odd angle as the man rested on his elbows. Even Dr. K was in the room, shuffling quietly through the fridge for food in the hopes that no one noticed. Really the only ones who seemed at all awake were the twins – who were coloring at the coffee table.<p>

Stretching a little, the black ranger strode over to where his teammates were clustered and raised a brow at them. "Do we usually spend the morning sitting around doing absolutely nothing and looking like zombies, or is that a new rule I haven't been informed of yet?" he asked, actually feeling pretty chipper for this time of morning. It'd been one of the only nights to date he hadn't had a horrific nightmare about his torture by Venjix. It'd still been a surprising one, but especially after the rain had started, he had had absolutely no trouble sleeping.

"No but it also usually doesn't rain like this." Scott commented slowly, seemingly struggling for words like the morning was oppressing even his need to try and be the dominant leader of the group.

Summer nodded softly, "It just seems so dark and bleak out and it's cold." she added, leaning a bit on the counter and shaking her head. "I have no idea how you can be so happy. I feel like I'd rather just go back to bed."

"Seems like Ziggy already did." Dillon joked, taking the orange juice container from Dr. K so he could pour himself some before she made off with it. The little genius seemed more inclined to hug onto the bottle and wander away with it today than just getting herself a drink and leaving it.

Scott made a vague hand gesture, "He didn't even bother getting up," he mumbled, picking up his coffee cup before deciding he didn't have the energy to refill it. "Or if he did, we haven't seen him."

"Ranger Green went to bed directly after you all returned from yesterday's Venjix attack. He said he was feeling under the weather. You may not see him at all today," Dr. K commented dryly, snatching the orange juice carton back from Dillon once he'd poured his glass. This was her's. They could get another.

Summer sighed, turning and looking curiously at Dillon. "Do you think it's Venjix?" she asked, her hair falling lightly over the hand she had her head resting on as she spoke. The shade of blonde seemed so much duller today.

"What the rain?" he raised a brow at that. He had heard they were scheduled for sun that day but really, the Colonel could have just changed his mind, right?

"Something overrode the city's weather controls. My Dad called earlier to make sure Doc K hadn't done it." Scott replied, hazily leaning on the other side of the counter between Summer and Flynn. Really, he seemed the most out of it of the trio.

Doctor K was the one who speak up with Dillon's comment before he got a chance to do it. "I don't really believe Venjix intends to randomly send light showers to mildly inconvenience the city as part of the plan to conquer it." Her reply was small, somewhat snippy, but also rather practical.

Flynn looked out over the Garage, a sort of wistful expression on his face, "Ah, it's probably just faeries or summat."

At this point Dillon turned to the Scotsman and raised a brow, which was mirrored by the Red Ranger. Had the man really just said that? Partly, Dillon wished Ziggy had been down here for that. It had completely topped Ghosts.

"It doesn't seem natural, and it doesn't seem like Venjix." Summer idly agreed. Some days that girl read too many fantasy stories.

About that time, a new voice entered the gathering, "What doesn't seem – ow – natural?" came Ziggy voice as the other tripped on his way down the stairs and slammed into the railing a bit before heading over to them.

The entire group turned to stare at him as he entered and immediately, it was obvious that it was like day and night compared to the others. Where they were all dull seeming, tired and generally blah, Ziggy looked more awake and pleasant than Dillon did at the moment. His hair had a sort of soft darkness, still drying off from a morning shower, and his cheeks were rosey. He was wearing a light green button-up that Summer had gotten him for his birthday, along with proper blue jeans rather than the usual black skinnies he wore. The most striking part, however, was how he had that weird black jacket of his slung over his shoulder – he only wore the damn thing once in a while since most of the group complained it made his shoulders look oversized and the rest of him look too skinny, but today it seemed to go perfectly.

"The rain outside – where do you think YOU'RE going?" Dillon asked, eyebrow practically in his hairline as he stared at the younger male. Ziggy did not EVER dress up like this, and he tended to be much more shifty in his ideas of doing anything, rather than just striding up to them calm and confident.

"Out, why?" the boy asked, and immediately turned his attention to the rest of the group. "Damn, have you guys all been pulling all-nighters? You look dead! Have some coffee or something, it's a beautiful day!"

Already Ziggy was bouncing over to grab himself a cup and fill it with some apple juice he snagged from the fridge, noticing K clutching the orange protectively. The entire team watched him, dumbfounded at the pure energy exuding from the boy. Was that even possible?

Finally, Scott answered, "Y'know, I'm starting to think Flynn might be right about it being faeries or magic or something. This rain's doing weird things to people."

Now Ziggy finally stopped and turned to stare at the team, his turn to think people were nuts. "Wait, faeries, really? Dude, that's worse than the time you thought the twins were ghosts. It's just rain, what's so weird about that?"

"All the dome computers say we were scheduled for sunshine today, and there's no rain going on according to the system." Summer explained with a gesture that would have been more grand and exasperated had she the energy for it.

The boy stared at her, "So? The computers are broken. I'm not going to complain about some light showers." he laughed, and immediately slung on his jacket, "Now I'm goin for a walk. See you all later!"

About that time, Scott remembered he was supposed to be in charge of the team at least in some capacity and reaching out to tug Ziggy back. "Whoa whoa whoa, what is it you plan on doing while you're 'out'?"

Ziggy shrugged, not really too concerned with the matter, "Just out. It's a nice day, I want to go out and enjoy it. You guys may have a bad case of the rainy day blues, but I don't." And with that he was off.

Scott stared after him, a good bit bewildered for what was neither the first nor last time that day, hand still grasping at the air in front of him. The rest of the team stared too, before Flynn decided to speak up.

"Does he usually like rain that much?"

For a moment, Dillon opened his mouth to answer, but found none he could come up with, so he shut it again. His eyes followed after his friend however, as Ziggy headed out into the rain in his jacket and nice outfit, and for a second, the man wondered if it was just his imagination – but was the rain not even hitting him?

–

That afternoon, things it seemed had cleared up some. The team was starting to be less lethargic and weird, and Dillon had begun to forget that dream from the night before. However, bits of it still nagged at him for some reason, and he felt like a jerk for not remembering it properly. It's how he found himself seated in the Fury in the afternoon, quiet and trying so hard to remember whatever it was.

"So, you never told me, did you sleep okay last night?" Summer had just walked up, leaning on the doorway and asking her usual questions. Usually he'd brush her off with a dirty look or a lie, but today he didn't feel as incredulous. Today he wondered if telling her might help him remember why it was bugging him.

With a sigh, he nodded, "Yeah, slept great. Had a weird dream though – something I dreamed when I was a kid, I just started thinking about it last night."

"What happened?" the blonde asked with that tender interest of hers that always felt annoyingly nosy but sort of sweet and justified when she used it.

Dillon furrowed his brow, trying to think as he spoke, "I was in a city. With my sister – we were going somewhere, I think home. It was raining heavily and I didn't feel well and fell into someone and blacked out."

"Is that where it ended?" Summer asked gently, petting his arm in that way she did.

He shook his head, "No, some people started talking about us and it felt like we'd been brought somewhere and someone agreed to take some sort of penalty in a game for saving us or whatever. Then I woke up and it started raining like in my dream."

"I KNEW IT!" came a very triumphant shout from Flynn as the Scotsman came out from under his truck to point at Dillon. "There are fair folk involved in this!"

That drew an annoyed snort from across the room. "Flynn, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard – why would faeries give Dillon a weird dream and then make it rain all morning." Scott asked, hand on his hip as he walked away from the couch.

Gem and Gemma chose now to dash over and tackle the two guys into hugs. Summer chuckled at the two other couples and smiled down at Dillon who tried to smile but shrugged some.

"You're talkin about faeries-" Gem started, looking up from where he had his hands on Scott's shoulders, somewhat surprising and almost disturbing the older man.

"-and you didn't invite us to hear?" Gemma asked, giving Flynn a teasing pout before lightly smacking his chest.

Scott looked with mild amusement at Gem before shaking his head and turning back to his friend, "What IS it with you and the supernatural anyway?"

A small quiet seemed to sweep over the room as everyone looked over at the blue ranger, who scratched his short hair awkwardly, looking like he wasn't sure whether or not to tell the group or not. "Look you've got to promise not to think I'm weird or anything, okay?"

"You mean not moreso than usual, right?" Dillon joked, lightly nudging Summer off of his arm and exiting his car to lean against it and listen to whatever this was. The yellow ranger chose to lightly lean on his chest instead of the side of the car, which the man wasn't sure whether or not he liked, but she was his sort-of-love-interest-thing so he just left it.

Flynn gave his teammate a dirty look before finally explaining, "I believe in magic, sort of, because my Mum was a faerie. Or something like that."

Immediately, the others burst out laughing – except for Dillon and the twins, the former of whom was wondering about his teammate's (and his own) sanity, the latter who just looking with amazement at their friend.

"Your mother being of magical origins does not even seem remotely possible, Ranger Blue." came Dr. K's voice from nearby, where she stood, having come out to see what the team was getting up to.

The man glared around at the group before crossing his arms over his chest. "Look, yes it's weird to hear but I'm not lying! Scotland and Ireland were well known for stories about magical things happening. And my Da' met my Mum under some mysterious circumstances. Found her one day, wandering through the woods by his house when he was little – a weird pretty lass with a strange accent! And she always knew stories and legends about magic. Always said the sea was a little girl who wanted friends to tell her stories! And when it rained particularly on weekends, it meant the God of Dreams was out for a walk."

"What has rain got to do with the God of Dreams?" Summer asked, looking puzzled as Dillon seemed to stare into space beside her.

Something was tugging at the back of his mind again. Something in Flynn's description tugged at his mind, something familiar he wasn't quite sure of. The words didn't quite ring a bell, but more started readying to hit a gong.

Vaguely, he was aware of Summer asking Flynn a question – what had happened to his mother anyway? He always said his Dad had raised him for the majority of his childhood, and his mother was almost never mentioned. Where had this supposedly mysteriously accented girl his father met in a forest run away to?

Flynn seemed to close up at the questions for a moment, his eyes almost as distant as Dillon's looked when he was recalling horrid memories of being tortured by Venjix. "She died when I was a wee lad. She got sick with a fever after taking care of me when I was sick..." he shuddered some, eyes shining, "Last time I saw her, she was in bed, and she looked so tired. Didn't look really sick – just tired, and I remember her voice was softer, and her eyes looked so green. Like springtime. And she smelled like flowers in the morning. She said she'd see me when she was better, but that night my Da' told me she'd passed away and her family came to take her home. I'd never met them, and I didn't wanna believe it then, but now..."

Gemma instinctively hugged Flynn, and Scott looked apologetic, having lost his own mother and brother, and feeling kind of bad. Summer moved forward to pat Flynn's arm. Dillon, meanwhile, was standing there and staring at the other ranger with a look of dawning comprehension. The bell or gong or whatever it was in his mind had been struck and the fragmented memory of that soft flowery smell, and a soft voice, and a person who gave off a feeling of life and springtime.

"You said your mom had a weird accent, right?" he suddenly asked, looking at Flynn intensely.

"Wha?" The Scotsman stared at him, confused for a moment before snapping out of it. "Yeah, dinnae even speak like anyone else I'd ever met, even though she'd lived with me Da' since she were little."

"Did she do weird things with letters, like saying ers as eers but regular e sounds as a's?"

Now it was Flynn who had a weird look of dawning comprehension and surprise, "Yeah! Like Drameer was how she said Dreamer."

It was like a rushing hitting him and all at once it was both frighteningly realistic but also horribly weird. "I think I've met her," Dillon said softly, brow furrowing. "Or at least, she was in my dream."


	3. Of Champions and Dreams

**Author's Note: **Figured I'd write up more than one chapter of this so I could post them in a reasonable amount of time.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is my own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het. Please keep this in mind. Fic ratings exist for a reason, but I'll warn before stuff if I can.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, blah blah, AU, blah, my usual

**Small Apology:** Last chapter Flynn's accent got REALLY bad. I had him doing exposition and typing his accent out really was killer both to write and to read. I'm really sorry guys, I did not mean to make you all slog through that. I've now edited the chapter to remove that and will try to refrain from doing that accent that strongly again. Again, I am so sorry guys.

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><p>"Dillon, how can Flynn's mom have been in your dream?" Summer asked, trying to be as nice as she could about the question without sounding patronizing to either Flynn or Dillon. Really, it was an uncomfortable position to be in as a friend.<p>

And the position immediately got a tad more uncomfortable as Ziggy entered the room, "I...just picked the worst time ever to walk in on the middle of a conversation, didn't I?" he asked, looking between the members of the group for some sort of explanation.

Summer and Scott both started to explain at the same time, when Flynn hushed them all with a very simple answer, "I was jus' telling the group about my Mum's stories."

It was like a piano scale of facial expressions that went across his face right then. From dawning comprehension, to acceptance, to suddenly realization, to a very strange mixture of disgust and confusion that contorted his features to look more weirdly pointy and peaky than usual.

"That just makes Summer's question worse." Ziggy said, shaking his head a bit and heading properly into the garage, "Could someone tell me what dream we're talking about here? I'd really not like to let my brain go with what it has right now or it'll be forever scaled with really frightening thoughts."

Dillon rolled his eyes, "I just remembered some weird dream I had from when I was a kid, that's all."

"Yeah, a weird dream where it was raining-" "-and then when you woke up it started raining." the twins added, each grinning at Ziggy from their respective positions. They loved this sort of story time!

The teen merely walked over to the fridge to put away the groceries he'd brought home with him. "And how does Flynn's mom come into this?" he asked after a short while, looking up at them as if they had been meant to continue. Really, what was with him today?

"There were people talking during part of the dream – they were talking about games and penalties for saving him and his sister." Summer explained since Dillon didn't look like he wanted to deal with that.

Ziggy looked up almost as if he was thinking of something, "Really now. How...interesting." he said, pouring some of the new orange juice carton into a cup and taking a sip.

"Flynn just overreacted when he heard the dream description and had to start going on about his mother's stories." Dillon grouched.

The Scotsman gave his teammate a dirty look, "Yeah, and I turned out to be righ'!"

The small brunette wandered over to stand by Dr. K now, who seemed to be very confused but interested by this description. "So Dillon had a dream about rain and magic people playing weird games and Flynn's mom popped up in it?" Ziggy asked, one hand in his jacket pocket as he sipped the juice.

"We don't know for sure if it was his mom. Dillon was just about to tell us when you walked in." Scott explained, lightly shrugging Gem's hands off of his shoulders and walking forward and away from the other ranger. Gem was nice and all, but he got a little too excited and tried to ride piggyback sometimes when Scott let him stand like that for too long.

The black ranger made a vague hand gesture, not really too keen on the group. "He said she smelled like flowers and had a weird accent to cause her to pronounce Dreamer as Drameer. And I distinctively remember one of the voices kept addressing another as Drameer and she smelled like all sorts of spring and plants."

At the name, Ziggy blanched a bit. "She called them WHAT?" he asked, looking from Dillon to the rain outside and back. As he did this, the rain, which had been slowly letting up all day, began hitting harder and in more force.

"She addressed one of the others as Drameer, and I know someone else called them Dreamer later. There was also one called Angellus and one mentioned called Andalucia. Why do YOU care? If you suddenly say your parents told you fairy stories about it raining when the god of dreams and memories is about, I'll hit you."

Immediately the entire group turned to stare at him. Flynn was even looking a bit confused as to what he'd said, when Dillon was almost positive he'd quoted the other's story perfectly. Still, they just gaped, except Ziggy who merely had his eyebrows raised and was drinking his juice.

Finally, he couldn't take the silence, "What are you all staring at?"

"I never said anything about a god o' memory," the blue ranger finally answered, cocking his head to the side at Dillon.

It was then that another wave of the dream hit him. It was still dark and he could feel someone tightening that warm thing about his shoulders. His eyes opened blearily in the darkness and he could vaguely make out an individual before him with warm brown eyes.

"_It's okay if you're waking back up." the voice they called Dreamer spoke to him gently before turning back to the others, leaving him able to view that strangely indistinguishable long hair again and a bit of the rest of the table, coated in bright light._

_A dark skinned young man who seemed almost like burnt stone was seated at the table, and his very aura seemed to burn the surrounding area. There was also a whispy haired blonde with a patient face, and a squished face little imp with a big nose. None of them seemed quite alike, and they all seemed to be amused at him waking up._

_The first to speak was the scrunched faced one, who he now connected to the earlier airy voice, "If he's your champion, isn't he supposed to be out of the loop till you call on him?" this time it was curious and the Dillon having the dream found that voice so very familiar._

_The brown eyed person by him, who seemed to be checking on someone else nearby spoke now, "Well yes, but really, I can't call on him if I'm in a penalty and can't remember I even have a champion. And while I'm the only one as adept at losing as Cre, I think I have the right to a little bit of a cheat to get out and get myself and Andalucia back into the game proper again. I am the ruler of memory as well as dreams after all."_

_Dillon tried to turn his head to get a look at the group, but already his vision was failing once more. But he couldn't quite tell if that was him, or something about them that made the group so hard to see. Maybe that was part of it being a dream – it was meant to be fuzzy._

"_So you're going to make him remember being here a little bit in his dreams and when he remembers, he'll cause you to remember?" the strong voice came now, from the dark male who seemed amusingly on fire as he spoke._

_The one near him made a weird gesture at that, "Of course not. I have no way of knowing where he is or if I'll run into him. I'll just make it rain like it did tonight where I am when he remembers this part of the dream and he'll be compelled as my champion to come find me. Then he'll just remind me till I figure it out myself."_

"_That's so overcomplicated and stupid, I love it!" the airy one replied, clapping his hands. _

_The accented one – Flynn's mother? - spoke now. "We should not accept that complex of a failsafe from you, but as you are likely to get yourself out of the penalty box again before that happens, and Andalucia is likely to still be in long after, I believe we should allow it."_

"_I agree with Lalai." the dark one answered, a crackling like a hearth to his small chuckle, "The Dreamer fails at living long, and he's the one who knows where her penalty form is. So he shall be responsible for finding her, and his champion for making sure he has found himself." _

It was then that Dillon found Summer trying worriedly to shake him awake, and Scott saying something about "Oh no, he's lost himself again."

"Naw, looks like he's just having another weird dream thing." Ziggy commented, opening a box of Mr. Marshmallows he hadn't had when Dillon had started dreaming again.

Dillon nodded a bit, and after the team kept prompting him to tell them what it was, he pushed past them to go sit on the couch. Everyone clustering around his car was starting to make him claustrophobic for some reason – and it kept reminding him of that weird round table setting the people in his dream had been in.

Summer came over to put an arm on his shoulder now, seeming to not get the 'need space' portion of his movements. Really, now was not a good time for cuddling and he actually brushed her off. When she put her hands back again, he left them – Summer was just not going to get it.

"You have to tell us what happened. It's the only way we're going to figure out how to make this stop, Dillon." she said softly.

He sighed, just wanting this idiocy over with. "The Dreamer guy was doing something and wanted me to remember having been there with him. Said it would start to rain wherever he was so that I could find him and get him out of whatever penalty he was in so he could get someone else out of a penalty."

Ziggy stared at him oddly for this, taking a bite of a marshmallow since he couldn't seem to figure out what to say. Scott, meanwhile, was motioning oddly, at a loss for words as well. Flynn and the twins, it seemed, were pretty accepting of the idea – it following with the theory that this weird rain really was magic. And Dr. K seemed confused at how any of this works.

"So that means whoever it is is in Corinth." Summer looked encouraging as she said this, trying to get Dillon to spill more, but there wasn't much beyond it.

The man was about to inquire about why he should bother looking for this person, despite being their "champion" when he suddenly realized something. Turning to look at the blonde, he stared in awe, "And whoever it is, would know my sister and maybe who I was!"

"How are you even supposed to remind this person of whatever it is?" Scott asked, finally having found some sort of words for what he was thinking. Looking up at him, Dillon almost thought he remembered something else from his teammate's face, but couldn't quite lay his finger on what it was. This was all too weird!

Still, the man shrugged, not really sure himself. "I don't really know – I guess the rain will keep going till I find him and make him remember I guess." Dillon wasn't that sure of the answer, but he also was pretty sure that no matter what it was going to end weird and no one else knew what to do anyway.

"Well let us hope the rain does not continue to increase as you remember or forget things. Otherwise we shall be drowned by the time you remember enough to assist the person in question, Ranger Operator Series Black," Dr. K was not at all amused by the fact that the rain had gotten worse since he had had this latest flash. She wasn't opposed to water, but this rain felt horribly stifling.

Dillon just rolled his eyes and stood once more to go upstairs. Summer's hands on his arm were starting to bother him again, and the stares of his teammates were starting to be stifling. The blonde stared after him curiously for a time before shaking her head and getting up to see about playing pool to take her mind off the weather.

As he was heading up the stairs, the man could hear Ziggy making an idle comment downstairs around one of his marshmallows, "Well, at least Venjix probably won't attack while it's doing stuff like this to the weather, right? It'd screw up most attackbots." Dillon didn't get to hear Dr. K's sharp reply to this, and frankly he didn't want to. Venjix was the last thing he wanted to think about right now.

–

At Venjix's base, Tenaya was pacing around irritably. It had been raining inside of Corinth for the past three days, and while the Dome usually had its weirdly scheduled showers, this was nothing like them. Merely stepping into this rain felt new and weird to her, and she wasn't the only one. But while Tenaya just had a hard time focusing or making her upgrades work during this storm, the other generals were having a much harder time.

Crunch, it seemed, was becoming increasingly more energetic and playful and kept wanting to go outside. This left Venjix in a very tight spot of what to do with him since he really seemed to just want to go play, and letting him do so would be disastrous. Keeping the errant general inside, however, would also be a terrible idea.

Meanwhile, Shifter and Kilobyte were both becoming weirdly irritable, as their circuits didn't want to work at all inside the city. They had to keep out of the strange rain or risk shorting out. That went for most of the Attackbots as well, but especially for the two of them. Shifter was taking it decently, just trying to design some new weapons, but Kilobyte had decided he'd rather go out into the Wastelands to do a bit of information gathering if he couldn't go deal with the city directly just yet.

Really, Tenaya was just starting to suffer from cabin fever. She hadn't been allowed out on any major assignments since her failure at putting the city to sleep, and that discussion Kilobyte had had with Venjix after-the-fact had left her on edge. She longed to be out doing something and away from the hyperactive-airhead-bot and the over-strict-designer-bot. The fact that part of her was curious about that feeling of excitement and energy the rain had filled her with had nothing to do with her desire to go out. At least she kept telling herself that.

–

Back at the Garage, Dillon had been having a weird time adjusting to the rain. It hadn't gone away over the past few days, and while it wasn't negatively impacting Corinth's systems too bad, it frustrated the black ranger and left him irritable. While the others still had that weird lethargy to them when first getting up in the mornings with this freak weather, he himself was still alert like normal. It made the others annoying to deal with and it was just compounded by how curious and patronizing certain members were being.

When he'd first arrived in the city, he had thought Summer was odd for taking such an interest in him, but he was mildly attracted to her, and amused by her feeble attempts to get close to him like that. He knew he fascinated her for some reason, and the man had found that kind of cute. She also reminded him, in a way, of who he was supposed to find, which Dillon now knew to be his sister. That had been her initial appeal.

He'd grown attached to her, the way he had the rest of the team. Summer was fun, and cheery, and pretty. The black ranger would often think only of her strong points, particularly when the two of them were alone together. But times like this, when he was just thinking over their pseudo-relationship, it didn't seem worth it at all.

Summer was the type of person who could snark back at him when he was a jerk, who cared enough to chase him through a burning building because he was being thickheaded, and who hovered over him worriedly when he was being scanned for Venjix parts. On the other end of the spectrum, she was also the type who didn't seem to get that he wasn't really interested in the kind of touches or affection she wanted. Summer was also the type of girl who seemed to think it was okay to go taking his car into a tornado, get the hood ripped off, and just tease him about it – they'd barely fixed the damn thing from the wreck she'd gotten it into. He was amazed the smaller parts of his car hadn't gone flying off in that storm.

As he looked out the window at the rain, Dillon also thought about the way she'd convinced him to join the team. In a way, she'd done so doubly – taking him out during a storm and trying to make him care, which he did when seeing a couple of children in the rain, reminding him of himself and his sister when they were young, then later being in danger and making him feel protective when the radio in Scott's car had been patched into their coms.

Summer really did mean a lot to him as a friend. She was the one Dillon'd rush to protect the most – even if she wasn't exactly the one who always needed it the most. She was also the one he'd always think of when considering members of the team who were on his side in things and who he could trust. But really, did the yellow ranger deserve all of that trust or leeway he gave her? Summer wasn't a bad person but he did have to face it, she made decisions he questioned quite frequently, and when he needed to do something to find his past or whatever, Summer would usually be very waffley on the subject unless there was an easy way out. Partly, he wondered if any of the team was on his side. Really, when he thought about that – did ANY of the team really trust his judgment or side with him that often?

The man's musings were interrupted by the door opening and Ziggy poking his head in. It was still so surprising how well the other ranger took to this weather, though even he seemed to be sick of it – or maybe the boy was just sick of how grouchy and/or lethargic everyone else was. That did tend to leave them more likely to grouch at him than anything. The green ranger's pure lack of common sense or a brain-to-mouth filter didn't help with this at all. But usually he at least had the presence of mind to not bother Dillon when he was in this sort of mood.

"Go away, I don't want to talk to you, Ziggy." Dillon growled, more aggressive than he really meant to be, but not in the mood to deal with protests. The younger male was more likely to immediately cower at such tactics than say, Summer, who'd keep pushing no matter what if she wanted to 'comfort' him.

It seemed with his energy from the rain, the teen had also vaguely gained a backbone. "Good for you? I just came to find out if you wanted me to bring your dinner up for you later. I had to stop in here to collect your laundry anyway, so I figured I'd kill some birds and just ask now."

The man sighed, looking over at his friend and nodding at his request. Really, Ziggy meant well enough and for once he wasn't trying to help or ramble at him. The teen was just trying to show some consideration for his friend's feelings and Dillon was just being difficult at him because he was having emotional and romantic troubles.

"Sorry." he mumbled after a moment when the younger ranger came in to pick up said laundry once it was deemed safe to do so without getting yelled at.

The boy shrugged, making a nonchalant hand motion and smiling at his friend, "It's cool. Everyone's either really snappy or really affectionate lately. It's crazy."

As Dillon considered that, he suddenly looked at Ziggy again. Today the boy was wearing his skull shirt and black jacket, which the shoulders on were noticeably wet, though the rest of him seemed to have long since dried off.

"Shouldn't you take that jacket off before you get sick?"

The boy looked over at the still shiny marks of the raindrops on his sleeve before laughing it off. "Naw, it won't hurt anything and it'll just get wet all over again when I go out later. I like how warm it is in this weather."

The black ranger stood and walked over to idly play with a lock of Ziggy's hair, wondering how that had dried before the fabric, "This weather's really weird to you."

His friend didn't quite recoil from the touch, though he did glance oddly at it, "I just like it is all. It's good weather to take walks in – really refreshing and stuff."

Dillon nodded again, quietly, still playing a little with the soft but dry strands of hair. He wasn't sure why he was concentrating on that just now. Or why he never really noticed it, but Ziggy's hair was soft and curled funny, with an array of colors that made it kind of hard to tell what the real main color was when one was looking close at it. It was plain and brown from a distance – particularly when he didn't wash it – but lately it'd been showing all of its hues, from the softest golds to the deepest browns and blacks, to the fieriest reds. The older male was pretty sure he hadn't been interested in the facets of people's hair before recently, but this weather had been doing funny things to everyone.

Ziggy's cheeks seemed to go a little redder for a moment, and then the green ranger pulled away some and moved closer to the door, grinning a bit. "Anyway, you're the one who always complains I need to shower more." he joked and immediately hurried out with the laundry basket.

For a few moments, the black ranger paused, reminded a little of how the same young teen had left Scott standing with his hand outstretched after grabbing onto him just the other morning. But he didn't think on that long, being reminded more of his dreams again by a soft smell barely lingering in the air – a fresh scent like the rain that reminded him of the one he was supposed to be seeking. The one who could possibly help him find his sister.

"_Well I think for fairness sake, we should require you to have a penalty of at least ten years. After that, your little dream prince can come find you whenever he wants, if you haven't gotten yourself out of the penalty on your own." There was that strong wooden voice from the flame guy again._

_The Dreamer snorted lightly, "You lot and your conditions."_

_Once again, Lalai, the earthy one, laughed, a very musical and soft sound, "Fyre, you speak of this champion like he will be Drameer's paramour."_

_This seemed to almost offend the once again stormy sounding Dreamer, "I resent that implication! He's a kid!" _

_Now the obnoxious one, Cre, joined in again, "Yes but Fyre did say ten years before he can find you!"_

"_If we are to make you start merely small rather than all the way the beginning, Dreamer, in ten years you shall be grown decently. And he shall be at least of age for mortals. Who knows what will happen given your luck." They were all obviously teasing their compatriot now, even the seemingly often quiet Angellus._

"_We'll see." Dreamer seemed to have decided he'd put up with their lighthearted teasing for now, and ruffled the young Dillon's hair, "You're a cute kid, but you and your little sister better stay out of trouble just the same. I have a feeling this will turn into a bet of sorts, and if you don't grow up, we'll never be able to settle it, and I'll be taking a penalty for nothing." _

Once more, Dillon found himself in bed, having just had more of that weird dream. But that last line from Dreamer had felt so final – and the feeling of being whisked away afterward had remained. That had been the end of the meeting, at least from what he could see, but it didn't seem as relevant as the others. Except, maybe hinting at what age the Dreamer might be now – Dillon had been ten then, he knew that much now, which meant they were over the deadline for the penalty, it had now been fifteen years.

As he lay back to think about this, his door opened up once more and Ziggy came in carrying a laundry basket and his dinner. Seeing Dillon seemingly asleep, the teen flipped the light off and set the meal on the nearby table before lightly patting the man's shoulder and leaving the room. In the dark, and alone, Dillon tried to think back to the dream and to the smell of rain, but the smell of his dinner overpowered it. This wasn't the time to think about any of that. At least, not yet.


	4. The New Nightmare

**Author's Note: **Still can't figure out what I'm doing with second half of two chapters of two other fics. A I hate stuck points. More fickle though

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is my own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het. Please keep this in mind. Fic ratings exist for a reason, but I'll warn before stuff if I can.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, blah blah, AU, blah, my usual

**EXTRA WARNING: **This chapter will be really wtf in some ways. This is mostly because we are dealing with deities and they aren't always the most sensical creatures. Also the end of the chapter has this fic taking a minor rating jump. So you're all aware.

* * *

><p>It was a week of non-stop rain before Venjix first attacked. The bot was one hell of a whopper but what was worst about it was it seemed designed to make precise, quick hits that could damage or cripple an enemy severely. Really, with that and how off most of the team was, it could wipe the floor with them.<p>

The trouble with it, however, was that the bot wasn't interested in the rest of the team. It kept leveling these blows at Dillon and Dillon alone – and when his suit couldn't take any more and he de-morphed, it started leaving heavy, bleeding marks. The monster did eventually short out from the rain, but not before inflicting a rather strong stomach wound. Tenaya watched all this from her position nearby, wondering just what the point of that plan was.

She had gotten too sick of being inside after the fourth or fifth day and so had headed for the city on the pretense that she was doing reconnaissance on what was causing this ridiculous rain and how it was keeping most of Venjix's bots out of the city. The girl hadn't gotten a chance to report on the extreme lethargy that had overtaken most of the team, however, as she had immediately wanted to run and play soon as she was exposed to the water for too long.

Now she observed the group trying to heft Dillon back to his car to take him back. The man was in no shape to drive and the others didn't look much better, despite having not taken much damage. The one who seemed to actually be doing the most heavy lifting – actually half carrying his friend – was Ranger Green. He was also the one who convinced Ranger Yellow to trade vehicles with him for a time since he seemed to be unable to handle anything with more than two wheels. It all seemed so strange. Tenaya made to follow them, both because she wanted to investigate – and because she had a date with a certain little Doctor.

–

K looked excessively harried when she was looking over Dillon's results. Her hair was rather mussed – almost like she'd been tearing it out during the time she was napping while the computer scanned him after the fight. His stomach was no longer profusely bleeding – his implants adding an accelerated healing factor. That was a bonus to them, at least, or so he thought. Not that Dillon could think much – his head was starting to feel heavy and fuzzy again like he was about to pass out, despite not having lost that much blood. Maybe he was going to have more of that weird dream.

"This isn't good," the young genius hissed in horror, looking at the scans before her.

Immediately Scott headed over to look, the leader having been pacing around and looking agitated since his friend had gotten so messed up during the fight. All of the team was nervous – Summer sitting nearby, petting Dillon's arm as he lay on the examining table, Flynn leaning on a counter, the twins at their work table, and Ziggy sort of hovering off to the side where the man couldn't see him. They all started looking and acting a good deal more worried when even the red ranger started to seem panicked at what the paper said.

"What does it say, Doctor?" Summer squeezed his hand tightly, not at all liking the sound of this. Dillon idly thought that if it were bad news, holding on tighter to him and staying closer was probably a bad idea.

K gulped lightly, opening her mouth to say, "The percentage of Ranger Black's body taken over by the virus has just jumped a dramatic amount. Tests conclude this is due to his upgrades accelerating his healing, but causing all of the newly healed areas to be corrupted with Venjix tech. This may allow the virus to take him over at any point."

Well, that explained the muzzy-headed feeling. Dillon was just about to curse this turn of events or confirm their fears, but all of the sudden, things went dark. The world was a blur again and though he tried to fight it off, that horrible stinging sound that came with the virus's control wrapped through his head and he found himself completely out.

Usually, this resulted in him eventually regaining consciousness somewhere other than where he'd previously been and not having a clue as to what happened. This time, however, it felt like that warmth from his dream returned for a moment. But this didn't feel like his usual fragmented memories of the events – more new, and fresh.

"_Wow. Two for one. I give the Champion points for creativity," the voice of Fyre seemed amused, though there was something different about his voice now. It sounded younger, more playful and less serious. _

Dillon might have taken a moment to wonder why he was hearing that voice now of all times, but right then the blackness vanished from around him, and he realized that he was standing and had just dropped something. Looking around blearily, he found Scott and Flynn helping Summer off of the floor – all three of them looking at something past his side. Absently, the man realized he was holding Dr. K's sonic canon and part of the room in front of him looked destroyed. However, he was more concerned about the fact that the Doc herself was lying on the floor, cold eyed, with what looked like a civilian dressed Tenaya 7 trying desperately to wake her back up.

It was then that he looked down at what the primary colored trio was staring at that was so much more interesting than the possible attackbot. There he saw on the floor just what he'd dropped – when he'd come to, he had just let go of Ziggy's neck, and let the teen fall to the floor, eyes already cold and lifeless from having his neck snapped in just such a way as to instantly kill him.

He felt almost numb, and the world around him felt cold as he heard the others speaking and the Tenaya-lookalike's cries for K to just please wake back up, all of it sounding like it was being spoken through a filter of water around his head. He was losing air and it did really feel like he was swimming, the numbness mixing with a taste of blood in his mouth – or was that salt?

All of the sudden he realized very much that he WAS drowning. There was no doubt about it – Dillon was drowning on dry land, and the world before him was spinning as he heard what sounded like those weird far away voices again, trying to talk someone down from something. What was going on and WHY? It was all starting to overtake him and he almost lost all air.

And then he was just fine, as a hand smacked him solidly in the face. He could barely make out someone trying to talk to him, his senses not really ready to work again yet. They'd gone from being shut off by Venjix to being shut off by randomly dying and now he was just trying to get his bearings and – wait was that Ziggy smacking him?

"Aren't you dead?" those were the first words out of the man's mouth once his throat started to work. Really, he was pretty sure he'd just been having a huge panic moment over having killed his friend in a Venjix rage, and now the other was standing there just casually slapping him in the face and shaking him out lightly.

The teen widened his eyes and chuckled at that, his voice sounding way too pleasantly surprised than someone who had just been no-longer-among-the-living had a right to be. "Now, why did you want me to be? Cause I'd hate to burst your bubble, but I'm kinda immortal, and as a God you really can't do me harm anyway. Not unless I want you to anyway."

It was about this point that Dillon realized Ziggy's hair seemed a little longer now, to his shoulders, rather than awkwardly cut close to his head. It seemed to fluff up nicely and it properly didn't look like any specific color, but more just a general warm dark hue. He was also standing a little straighter and more calmly. The rain had been affecting him oddly lately but this oddly? Just then, it hit the man that he had just been told his friend was a God and he couldn't hear the sound of rain outside anymore.

"Oh no..."

The boy burst out laughing at that. Well, not really a boy – what was he anyway? At least Flynn, Scott and Summer still looked decently horrified. Not-Possibly-Tenaya was still on the floor hugging at the seemingly lifeless Doc K, and this all was getting unbelievably weird. He backed up a bit to sit on the examining table once more and get his bearings – only to find he'd overturned it at some point and end up crashing to the floor. This just drew more riotous laughter from the Apparently-Immortal-Ziggy, who seemed to be having a blast watching this.

Thankfully, at least one of the others had the presence of mind to ask what the hell was going on. The Red Ranger, being the serious leader, took a moment to gesture wildly before saying in his most exasperated voice, "Ziggy what the heck is going on? We just watched him kill you, then keel over, and then you get up and start laughing, smack him till he stops choking on nothing, and now you're talking about being an immortal."

It seemed this address was enough to draw the attention of the other and remind him of just what was going on. "Oh yeah you people haven't got a fucking clue what just happened do you?" he said with an almost wonder. "Well see, I'm a deity – the ruler of Dreams among other things actually – annnnnnnnnd I'm involved in a game with the other deities where we live as mortals and stuff for fun to see who makes it the longest till we die and get our powers all the way back. But see I was just stuck in a penalty for a bit – long story as to why – so I was not only mortal, but I didn't remember I wasn't really mortal. So the only way to get out of that is to become dead, which I'm amazed I actually made it this long without doing because holy crap am I bad at staying alive even when I remember I'm immortal, and this incarnation was pretty damn useless, let me tell you, though you probably know that already anyway. Anywho, hi, I'm Dreamer, what else do you need to know?"

The entire room – including not!Tenaya – turned to stare at him right then. That had been the most extreme case of Ziggy randomly going on a long rambly tangent that made very little sense if you weren't paying close attention. But usually he wasn't this horribly weird to understand.

Eventually, Summer got up the energy to move her mouth a few times before eventually forcing out another question, "Doesn't that mean you're the one Dillon's been having dreams about? The reason it was raining?"

Stretching some, the boy seemingly ignored the question for a moment, helping his friend back up before turning back to the blonde addressing him as if surprised that she seriously wanted an answer to that, "Are you kidding? Of course I am. Who else would I be?"

At this point, the girl that he was really starting to suspect might actually be Tenaya 7, spoke up angrily. "If you're a God, then do something about this! Bring her back!" she demanded, eyes still tearstreaked as she clutched the dark haired girl.

Ziggy looked from her to the limp K a few times, looking almost sympathetic before he broke out laughing once more. This made the maybe!Tenaya look really very much like she was about to jump up and hit him if it didn't mean dropping the other girl. However, he soon spoke in a way that completely changed her mood.

"I can't bring her back – she's not dead. 'Lucia's just acting that way because she hasn't figured out what's going on or if it's still dangerous to get up. That and she probably likes the fact that you're practically smashing her face into your chest, but you know, that's just my opinion." He waved a hand after saying that, seemingly ignoring the upset-and-confused-cyborg-girl and heading over to help pick up a set of increasingly confused twins, who looked like they were just waking up from a very heavy daze that being knocked out with a table will do to people.

Immediately, Dr. K turned away from the chest she was being held against to give Ziggy a dirty look, "Spoilsport." she grumped a little. And it became increasingly obvious that her voice no longer properly held that almost robotic snappish click to it, now sounding much more wistful and somewhat like crashing waves.

The boy chuckled, "Come on, little sister, you'll have time to get your kicks later. Anyway, you owe Dillon an apology – you drowned him, you know."

The man was becoming increasingly pissed off at this whole discussion. It made his head spin more than the damn water had. He was vaguely aware of the feeling returning to his body when suddenly he grabbed Ziggy's shoulder and promptly decked him. "Stop acting like a weirdo. It's fucking weird," he mumbled before heading off to his own room to lie down. He did not want to be dealing with these people right now.

–

"Master Venjix, Master Venjix! Ranger Black and Tenaya 7's files have just vanished from our computers!" came the over-excited ravings of General Crunch, who had just run into the room flailing like a madman. "Ranger Black isn't even on our radar any more – it's like the virus just left him!"

Oh could today GET any stupider? Venjix had been dealing with his generals all acting screwy due to that rain and then Tenaya had had to run off because it was affecting her human nature as well as her machinery. Things had almost seemed like they might look up when Kilobyte had come in from doing a little bit of research at the other hybrid camps that when the subjects were grievously injured their upgrades sped up healing and infection – Venjix had chose not to ask how this information was acquired. Now it seemed information was missing and though the rain had stopped, Ranger Black had gone from being fully under their control to not at all.

Venjix might have become completely pissed off, had a very upset looking Tenaya 7 not stormed in soon after, mumbling something about needing to go to bed and about humans being stupid. That both didn't look good and also sounded quite promising. Maybe the virus just needed to take up positive thinking for a change.

–

Dillon was not having a pleasant night. It had seemed like soon as the rain stopped that his nightmares had come back and on top of that, there was so much information swirling his head and everyone just seemed to want to bug him. Twice Summer had come up to try and talk to him, once Scott, and the twins had even taken the time to poke their heads in, though that was more curiosity than anything. In fact, the only person who he really might consider talking to right now, was the one who hadn't bothered coming upstairs.

He'd been having nightmares about turning into a full machine for a long while before the rain had started. Usually they involved Summer panicking over him having a metal hand and then him being attacked by metal strings that encompassed his whole body. Today, however, he just couldn't get the image of Ziggy's cold and lifeless eyes out of his head. He remembered those soft brown eyes he had seen in the dream and never paid attention to when they were in front of him in the flesh, but empty like that and without life, having been caused by his hand, that had been horrific. The fact that the other hadn't come up to explain any of this to him or try to talk it out didn't make this any less frustrating or awful either.

"_Well I was waiting till you were a bit more amiable towards company." _came a soft voice in his mind as it seemed like a hand rested under his chin and turned his face from the lifeless mortal form to face the beautiful and almost frightening God within the darkness. Barely able to be made out, and yet still there.

Right about then, Dillon woke up, both shocked and exhilarated by seeing that. Generally not being the religious type, he had never considered whether or not a deity of something like dreams would be attractive to look at in their true form. Or that they'd be able to enter his nightmares and shift them. Part of him wondered just what sort of affect that could have on their relationship as teammates. The rest of him very much wanted to know if they even counted as teammates anymore since one of them was an immortal after all.

A soft chuckle reached his ears as Ziggy leaned on the doorframe, looking at him through the darkness with those gentle brown eyes, that now seemed to almost glow with power. The rest of him still seemed human, besides the odd quirk with his hair, but those were distinctly otherwise. Carefully Dillon sat up and waited for the younger male – or did he count as older now? - to start speaking.

"What, you really expect me to do all the work?" the boy teased, walking over to lean lightly on the edge of Dillon's bed. He looked almost submissive from that position but the feeling of power from those eyes was enough to keep Dillon transfixed and completely at his mercy.

The man opened his mouth to speak, but seemed to lose himself. He had never possibly considered that the reason it was raining so much around their group was because the person he was supposed to be reminding was one of them. Or that maybe Ziggy was the only one besides him with any energy because the rain was a sign of the deity's power. Or that maybe the one person who he barely noticed but always needed, might be the one who could leave him so completely at their mercy.

A small laugh and roll of those eyes broke the hold they had over the man, and Ziggy grinned some, "I never would have pegged you for the poetic type, Dillon." he joked.

"I never would have pegged you for an immortal God of Dreams." the black ranger shot back, leaning in close and glaring at his friend, "I also wouldn't have pegged you for knowing who I am or where my sister is and that I just had to wring your puny little neck like I wanted to get that information." He snarled this part in the hopes of using what might remain of the younger male's innocence and timidity against him. However, that smell that fresh rain reminded him that he was dealing with something beyond his own comprehension. And at this distance the man could also pick up on something else – a sort of aura around the other. Somewhat like mystery – that had been what kept him from being memorable in the dream before where all the others were so solid – but also a dark and desirable undertone that brought to mind the question of who was best to fulfill one's wildest dreams but the deity of them himself.

The boy laughed at this and leaned up to lightly press his nose to Dillon's, "While I do find where your thoughts are going intriguing, you do need to focus, pretty boy. I do know more than you initially pegged me to know, but I don't know what you want me to. Only Andalucia knows for sure where your sister is, and that's presently very vague as she's been under penalty a lot longer than I have and is still readjusting to her powers. And I never really found out who you were, just that you wouldn't make it without my help and once you'd been restored and sent back to your world with your sister, I was immediately put under penalty and couldn't learn anything more."

His breath brushed across the older male's lips as he explained all this, and Dillon very much wondered if he could go back to those other thoughts now. However, he tried to hone in on what was being said as best he could, and eventually forced out another question, his voice a husky whisper against his wishes. "Why does only Andalucia know?"

"You are my Champion. Your sister, I chose to be Andalucia's, so they are bonded together. We can only properly locate our own Champions or people we know. It comes of there being a lot of mortals and a lot of information to sift through." The younger man indulged him a little by leaning up to tug at his lower lip playfully, and it became very hard for the black ranger to do much more than fight for more of these teasing little touches and kisses.

He breathed heavily after a few moments, not having the energy to keep chasing without getting a bit of air between attempts, and he tried to think of the other thing that had been bugging him. "Why...choose me as your Champion if you didn't even know me? And how did she become Andalucia's? She wasn't even there when you made me yours."

Tenderly, the smaller male brushed his fingertips along Dillon's cheek, letting the man catch his breath still, but considering the answer. "A whim, mostly. You seemed like a nice kid, and I felt I could relate to you some, and really, I did have to pick a Champion and pick one out for 'Lu' – we all picked our Champions differently, depending on what we felt was the best way to do so. I just decided I'd pick one when I was in the mood, and Andalucia made me pick her's too since she knew I'd be more likely to do it at all if I had to choose her's too. Responsibility and all that rot."

After he spoke, the teen leaned in and rewarded Dillon's minor patience with a long, slow and tender kiss. It tasted like what heaven had to be like but he had never thought of before, and it felt so perfect and gentle that when the other pulled away without allowing the man to embrace him or investigate this feeling more, it almost felt like a part of his soul was being ripped apart. But he'd never been poetic like this before – or felt a need like that before.

The other laughed a little and pat his cheek, "It comes from the power awakening in you from being my Champion. You're bonded to me because of it, and it's going to make you loopy and affect you weird for a few days. I'll leave you alone till you have your senses back about you and if you're still interested then, I'll see about losing a bet with my cohorts to satisfy your curiosity about that feeling," he trailed a finger lightly over the older man's somewhat plumped lips as he said this, and that finger trailed down over Dillon's chest and stomach before reaching a bulge he hadn't realized was in his pants.

"For now, though, that's a bit of revenge for not paying attention for me over the past few months, and for shooting my baby sister. If you think trying to sleep with Venjix nightmares was torture – you haven't even yet imagined what trying to deal with that problem will be like when the person who caused it to remain unfinished can manipulate your thoughts and cut you off at the worst possible moments."

And with that and a little laugh, the other darted out of the room and back into the darkness. Though whether he actually went outside or elsewhere Dillon wasn't quite sure. What he was sure of was that he probably need a cold shower about now, and that what his friend had just said was probably going to make for the most interesting and yet awful few nights till the other stopped being mildly irked at him.


	5. Oh How the Tables Turn

**Author's Note: **Lotsa update demands. Wow XD Though I have to mildly point out that I have a severe case of derp – I siad the fic warning upped...and then forgot to actually up it. Also, remember to not misread your own lines – Dr. K's sonic canon =/= Dr. Who's sonic screwdriver and I have no idea why Dillon would ever be holding that ever other than in some plot I may or may not have joked about with Dreamy.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is my own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het. Please keep this in mind. Fic ratings exist for a reason, but I'll warn before stuff if I can.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, blah blah, AU, blah, my usual

* * *

><p>"Okay, we've established that Dr. K's the Goddess of Water and the Sea, and you're the God of Dreams and Darkness, righ'?" Flynn was asking Ziggy this question slowly as Dillon came down to breakfast.<p>

The teen blinked from where he stood making a sandwich and nodded, "That's a pretty general explanation and doesn't encompass half of the things we rule over, but yeah, that'd be about the size of it. Why?"

The Scotsman looked very much like he was trying to find a proper way to phrase his next question. Or like he was trying to avoid that desirable aura the more godly version of their friend gave off – a thought that made the black ranger prickle in annoyance. "So why is rain your symbol?"

It was at this time that the Red Ranger chimed in from his seat on the couch, "I'd like to know that too. It's been bugging me."

The young doctor was the one who chose to respond to this. "Rainstorms counted as falling under both my domain and Cre's domain, and the rest of the group didn't particularly want to let Cre have dominion over thunder and lightening, and I didn't really want that part, so we decided to give rain to Dreamer since it gets dark during storms, therefore making it part of his domain as well, and because he's my brother and therefore has more leverage in getting the power than the others." At this point, it was noticeable that the little deity, while seeming more lively, having started wearing other outfits and letting Summer do her hair, was also a bit grouchy. Though he had a feeling this more was due to the present lack of Not!Tenaya. Where had she gotten to anyway?

"She ran off after we started trying to explain stuff." Ziggy commented from the table, causing everyone to look at him funny. "Oh yeah, you guys didn't know I can read Dillon's mind – he was trying to figure out where Tenaya went after he went upstairs. Myself, I'd be more wondering what she was doing here, but knowing K, I can probably just guess."

The young female's eyes shot darkly to her brother and Dillon had a sudden realization as to what Ziggy had meant by being able to relate to him – in the dream, he had been rushing to try and get his sister home from something stupid he had done. Given these two, it was probably the case with them a lot – the Dreamer would get Andalucia into trouble, but also be exceptionally protective of her, to the point of mildly torturing someone for harming her, even if the harm was done against that person's will. The teen just winked at him for this and the man knew he had gotten it right.

Summer took this time to walk over and rest her hand against the black ranger's arm. Part of him wanted to just shrug her off as he had been off and on since this whole business started. Another part felt guilty since she was still his friend and very dear to him, even if she wasn't quite what he wanted, and he had been sort of starting things with her before Ziggy revealed he was a flipping deity and grabbed his attention. The rest of him vaguely wondered whether the change in weather had actually caused him to start having second thoughts on the relationship or if he had just noticed them then.

Ziggy, it seemed, wasn't giving the girl dirty looks for her affection, or even seeming all that upset by it. Whether it was because he considered her not a threat, or because she had just been there first wasn't easy to tell though. He seemed perfectly fine continuing to animatedly talk to the group and even teased Dillon, saying "You've been leaving your girlfriend lonely to go pine after a deity you'd never met. You really SHOULD go spend some time with her." he teased.

"I don't know about that, his nature is opposed to her's, it might end badly," K commented in an offhand manner.

All of the rangers – green included – looked at her for this comment. "Excuse me?" Summer asked, very much wondering what was going on. She could understand Ziggy being a little jealous or teasing about her relationship with Dillon – the blonde had long since known he was interested in the other man, and they were generally pretty cool on the whole matter. But K?

The young doctor looked at them like they were out of their minds, particularly her brother, "You can't tell? Summer's Angellus's Champion. He's Ziggy's polar opposite."

The boy immediately looked between the two of them, peering at Summer before smacking himself in the forehead, "Oh hey, you're right. I never noticed that before." he walked over, poking her in the nose lightly, "You've grown up a lot since last I saw you with Angellus."

She laughed some at the touch but still seemed confused, "I really don't know who you're talking about Ziggy. What's this Champion thing about anyway?"

Dillon rolled his eyes, "Better question would be if you guys meddle so much as to even pick Champions, why didn't you lot bother stopping Venjix?"

It was almost funny watching the awkward contortion Ziggy's face went to through that – he chose to keep his mortal form for the most part, which was a plus in this case since his natural form probably could not make any such expression clear, as he could show all emotions he was feeling at once in the same face as a god. "Thaaaaaaaaat's a long story."

"It's not THAT long." K rolled her eyes and took a sip of her juice before explaining, "We created the world to be able to survive a lot and renew itself. However, mortals started expanding beyond a capacity where the world could properly renew in a timely manner to keep up with it, so occasionally we'd create natural disasters or whatever to speed things along so the world would end up choking out and dying on its people."

Ziggy nodded brightly, "Yep. Team effort really – since we were also off and on playing mortals, we'd have one or more of us do something to cause the destruction, one of the others would physically enact it, and the others had to find a way to clean it back up."

This didn't really sit well with the team, and Scott visibly twitched, walking over to lift Ziggy up by his collar, "So what you're telling me is that all wars, all genocide, all of that is you lot being BORED?"

Both he and K looked at Scott in an appalled manner – not like they felt guilty over something they had said, but more disgusted at what he'd implied. Immediately, Ziggy spoke, "WHAT? Are you fucking stupid? No! That's just humans being dickheads to each other. We based original mortals on ourselves and our domains, but let nature vary them and where we get bored and do dumb stuff on occasion, humans can do some really horrific shit for some really ridiculous reasons."

K rolled her eyes, "We have done a lot that has cut down on the human population over the years but most of it has been natural. Floods, Earthquakes, Famine, that's our fault."

"Yeah, and we stopped trying to one-up each other a long time ago." the green ranger said in such an offhand manner, it was almost terrifying to imagine what made them stop.

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes, "Yeah after the rest of us realized we should never have let you be the agent of destruction – you're creative but we do not let the one who came up with death be the one to destroy anything."

Her brother snickered some and began to hum what sounded distinctly like ring-around-the roses, which just have that whole spiel a very different meaning. Thankfully, however, before they could linger on that, someone realized what K had just implied about her brother, among other things.

"What do ye mean, 'the one who came up with death'?" Flynn asked, looking back and forth between the two.

Ziggy sighed and facepalmed, before looking sourly to his sister, "Context, child. Learn to use fucking context," he grumbled before turning to look at the group, "Look, when we first created the world, mortals didn't age and die or forget anything, okay? They went around, learned things, and just didn't fucking care about anything because hell, what did it matter to them? So Andalucia made them able to age – that way eventually they wouldn't all just be irreverently running about. But with age comes frailty and sadness and they had nothing to do with the knowledge they'd gained, and they were now all old and weak and just sitting around. So Lalai and Angellus gave them the gift of the ability to create new life, and Andalucia gave that life the ability to grow over time so they would have someone to teach."

"However, when they had all taught everything they had to teach, and the young were now older, they had nothing to do but create more new life and the new old ones taught those young ones. But now there was nothing left for the oldest ones. And so the Dreamer gave them a gift, both beautiful and terrible – he gave them the gift of a final sleep that would free them from their weak and mortal bodies and allow them to help make the world a better place. The wicked were destroyed, the rest were given the chance to try again or to instead pass on and help for eternity in our realms," K continued the story softly, as Ziggy didn't seem keen on remembering or talking about how he had gifted death on mortals, "Mortals also had so much knowledge and nothing new left to learn, so he gave another gift to them that was also a curse – the ability to forget."

The teen growled after the story finished, "And then someone learned 'oh hey, we can abuse our gifts!' because Fyre gave them emotions and Cre gave them the ability to be amused by all sorts of things, and so we fucking end up with war. The end. Are you all fucking happy now? I hate that story – why did you have to bring it up, 'Lucia?" With that, he stormed off, leaving the rest of the room to gape.

After a little bit, Dillon decided it was best to put the conversation back on track, "You still haven't explained what these Champions are. What, are they the like 5 people you pick to repopulate the world after you all brutally destroy it again?" he hissed.

K turned and stared at him oddly, saying only, "No, that would be stupid. We usually don't intentionally kill that many people – or any if we can avoid it. We're generally trying to destroy and restart the land itself not the people. The people will rebuild, the land needs a bit of a hand."

"Then what do you all need Champions for?" Summer asked, also wondering what good it was going to be.

The smaller girl made an awkward gesture, "It's complicated. Essentially, we try to decide who's doing what before we set anything in motion. However, I tend to win when we're mortals so I was put in a penalty box as a handicap. But then I got drawn as being the one who had to set up the destruction of the world – which we all thought was a bad idea to do when I had no idea I was supposed to be doing it or why, which meant I would have to end the world by accident, since I'm not really the sadist some of the others can be." K seemed to be struggling with this explanation, "As, Fyre had been chosen as the one to do the actual deed, which meant if I set things up too well, the world was going down and fast. We each were to pick Champions as a failsafe to protect the people just in case. Dreamer, Lalai and Angellus were the ones who came up with the idea to begin with – have beings who could channel our powers and would naturally be inclined to doing good for this world, both due to their connection to us and just because of how they were as people."

Gem and Gemma – who, while taking all of this strange business really well, had been silent up to this point – finally spoke now. "So how did you all-" Gem started. "-choose champions if you didn't know what they were for?" Gemma finished.

K shrugged, "That was part of the problem a lot of us had in choosing so we just did it somewhat arbitrarily. Fyre chose to help guide a mortal family member to being a proper Champion, Angellus chose to raise and guide a mortal he saw a lot of potential in, Cre just randomly pointed and shot his powers to a genetics lab where they were trying to create supersoldiers, Lalai decided having a child with a worthy mortal would provide a suitable Champion, and I told Ziggy he could just pick for me since he was just going to randomly tap someone he felt suited him and make them his Champion. He's usually very picky when it comes to me, so the fact that he picked who he picked as my Champion floors me."

Scott sighed, shaking his head, "So how are these Champions supposed to help us and how do we even know if they survived Venjix?"

The girl took a few moments to look at him incredulously, "You ARE the Champions. You just haven't gotten your proper powers unlocked yet, which makes it convenient that I happened to be working on something that empowered you for this long. I'm actually amazed that Fyre hasn't interfered just yet."

"I would have, but then I'd have to explain to Scott and my Dad how I'm alive." At that point, the entire room turned to look as Marcus Truman walked up, calm and quite alive, with an amused aura of strength about him and a crackle to his voice like a flaming hearth.

The Red Ranger gaped at his formerly-dead brother, but Dr. K smiled, "Hello Fyre, good to see you again. Does this mean Lalai, Angellus and Cre came with you?"

A light laugh came from a little farther outside and now it was Summer's turn to gape as Andrews, her butler, looking a good twenty years younger, entered looking much more healthy and twenty years younger than when she'd seen him last. "Only one out of three I'm afraid – Lalai went to visit someone else before coming to see you all. And I'm afraid Cre is in his own mixed up penalty for the time being."

Immediately, the girl rushed over to hug him, not entirely sure what to say, but already crying with relief and fear. He had been closer to her than her parents for so long – the only one who could be bothered to put up with her on occasion – and she had lost him. Scott, meanwhile, was sort of just smiling in disbelief at seeing his brother again.

Dillon growled a little, still not too content with all of this weird lovey-dovey business. "I hate to break up this reunion – but this is all ridiculous. You're telling me that Summer's butler, Scott's brother, Flynn's mother, Dr. K, and Ziggy are all Gods, and they picked us to be rangers a long time ago and yet somehow my sister isn't here?"

Marcus nodded at that, "Yes, that'd be about the size of it. Really, she'd be a ranger too, but Dreamer's one power of his that remained when we penalized him was his field of fate magic, which causes all sorts of things to happen in his presence. It decided he would presently be a better ranger than she would in her current time of mind – and that's probably a good thing, really. We already have one of our side partly working for Venjix. We don't need more."

About this time, Ziggy had come downstairs again, having left his sandwich behind when he'd stormed off, "Please tell me you're not implying that Cre went and made himself a hybrid or something."

"Oh, no, Cre was just a normal mortal for a bit. He just happened to get really lucky and be picked as Venjix's first attempt to make a hybrid – his internal functions are surviving in a robotic form now." Marcus seemed almost amused by this shift, even if it made Ziggy turn and lightly bonk his head into Dillon's shoulder.

The man looked back at his companion, vaguely wondering how it was possible that he seemed the most sane of these weird deity creatures so far. "He's Crunch isn't he?" Ziggy finally asked, face still buried in the older male's arm.

"Indeed." Angellus seemed less amused by this turn of events and more interested in talking to Summer, but he could at least confirm a simple question. He was less likely to infuriate their compatriot than Fyre was.

The green ranger leaned more heavily on his teammate now, but he seemed weightly, just sort of standing there limply for a moment before making an irritable groan into Dillon's shirt. "I'm going upstairs and I am not coming down for the next three hours. Do not call me even if you need me." he mumbled and turned to go do just that.

Dillon thought for a moment, "That sounds like a good idea," he mumbled before going upstairs after the younger ranger.

Angellus stared up after them for a time before smiling at Summer, "I think you'd best look for a different one, Miss Summer. That one's nature doesn't suit yours very well, and I think Dreamer has his sights set on him."

The blonde sighed sadly, leaning her head lightly on her old butler's shoulder, "Yes, I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to compete with him once we found out he was a deity. I had a hard enough time when he was mortal." Still, she smiled and pat his arm some, saying "Let's go look around the city." That was better than just pouting here.

"Good idea, Miss Summer." And the pair walked out into the sunlight.

Marcus chuckled some, "Looks like Lalai and Cre will probably be winning that bet against Dreamer after all." he commented lightly before turning to smile at his brother in a mischievous manner. "Think we should go fill in Dad or shall we just surprise him later?"

For the first time since this whole business started, Scott smiled with something other than just confusion or disbelief, "We'll tell him later. We can go do something fun till then. We can catch up."

Flynn watched after the groups all leaving before going to plunk down on the couch between the twins. "I was really hopin' me Mum would show up with them. Maybe later though," he said a little sadly before turning and smiling to the two of them, "Up for some video games?"

K rolled her eyes at the whole group before going back to her room to have a seat on the bed. Things seemed to be working out just fine with the other groups and their champions but her's had run off crying and angry and was presently in Venjix's palace. Even if Tenaya hadn't been her Champion, the girl would have been upset by this – she loved the other very much and having her run off like that before she could explain anything, it hurt like hell.

Meanwhile, in her room at Venjix's palace, Tenaya was curled under her covers thinking much the same thing. She was upset that she had worried – had cried – and it had been seemingly a trick. It had upset her horribly, but now she was alone and wondering very much if she should have stayed to find out what was going on.


	6. Decisions and Expositions

**Author's Note: ** Sorry for the small story break. I got roped into some odd contests and events.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is my own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners.

**WARNING!:** This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het. Please keep this in mind. Fic ratings exist for a reason, but I'll warn before stuff if I can.

**Extra Note: **Contains some spoilers for certain plot points in the series, blah blah, AU, blah, my usual

* * *

><p>It was weird having these people here. Dillon had decided that pretty quickly after the group had arrived and was starting to feel really justified in it. Sure, Summer seemed happy to have her old family friend back, and Scott was pleased to have his brother, and Flynn even got to have his mom back, but they were all just so strange to even be around. It wasn't just because they all acted very differently than how Ziggy and K did as deities – these three actually felt truly like powerful deciding forces in the universe, whereas the other two felt like children playing a game. But in a way, Dillon preferred the other two – they seemed at least somewhat more guilty about bad things happening or for when they had to be mysterious. The main thing the man didn't like, though, was that whenever he was in their presence, he felt stifled and annoyed.<p>

Part of him wondered if Ziggy could explain it – after the others had showed up, the younger male had closed off a good deal of his powers and wasn't even bothering to read Dillon's mind and know his questions, let alone spending much time in the same room with him. It had almost seemed like the boy was avoiding the older male, but why would he bother with that? Eventually, all these questions brought the black ranger to his teammate's room, where he found the window open and Ziggy climbing out of it.

"Oh...hi," the teen said, raised his brow, still climbing out onto the roof and taking a seat. "Did you need something?"

Dillon looked curiously at the green ranger for a few moments before walking over and joining him outside. It was a decently flat area of roof and not very precarious, so they could both easily fit. Really, it was a decent area to sit down, if a bit of a hard to access one. The younger male had already climbed up to sit on a somewhat more inclined spot and look out at the city, a rather wistful expression on his face.

After several moments of silence, the man realized he was meant to start this conversation. If he wanted to know something, he might as well ask. "Why don't I like being around them?"

The younger ranger eyed him for a moment before leaning back and sighing. "You really do need to work on your communication skills – expecting me to know what you're talking about is a bad idea." He looked like he was considering making Dillon rephrase before he finally let up and answered, "Because their natures are opposed to yours."

"What does that even mean?" The black ranger rested lightly on the wall, trying to think of what all this 'opposed natures' business even meant. He'd heard K mention it before in regards to Summer, but now this. What nature were they talking about?

Ziggy sighed, brushing his curls out of his face. They seemed duller now, more that plain brown again and his eyes seemed so distant. "We created things and because of this, unwittingly chose our domains and how to empower them. The others picked ones that went well together and let them play off of each other. I was the weirdo who decided not to follow what they were doing. While the others were off creating light and life, making things beautiful and wonderful, I was creating darkness, giving death as a gift, letting things turn ugly. What I wanted was balance and to make the world better – what I did was make myself the deity that takes the flack for most everything." There was a note of bitterness in his voice that was rather surprising. He had seemed so confident about being a God, had been having so much fun. Or at least, it had looked that way.

"Of course I looked like I was having fun – how the fuck else was I supposed to deal with suddenly having my powers back and not terrifying the rest of you? Andalucia isn't very good with people, she wouldn't have known how to break it to you all. And then of course, you were having a fucking panic attack and being smacked with a curse by a frightened goddess. So it was either act like an all-knowing prick or act like a confused weasel and you know the rest of the team – they aren't going to take me seriously if I try to explain things acting the way I normally do – not even with evidence in front of them that I might be telling the truth, it's still completely unbelievable because it's me." He just continued, not even bothering to leave Dillon to ask. He was obviously not too pleased with any of these events.

Finally the man walked over to lean lightly on his teammate's shoulder, "So you put on a front, did your best to save face, and now that the others are here you're just going back to hiding out and being awkward?" he asked, looking up at the younger male with amusement. It made him wonder some if that playful knowledgeable self had been all an act. But he had a feeling that part, at the very least, had been real.

Ziggy laughed halfheartedly and rested his head against Dillon's. "You're sweet, for a mortal," he teased, nuzzling a little at the older male's hair. "Anyway, I'm not so much hiding as I'm just trying to get myself situated and figure out what my decision is – if Fyre, Angellus and Lalai are here, it means they want Andalucia and myself to help decide what we're doing about the present situation. I don't have to play confident or smart if they're involved, so it gives me a bit to think and just be me."

Unlike the other night, the affection wasn't a mesmerizing pull that he couldn't escape, but that didn't make it any less welcome. This felt less forced and more just comfortable. They didn't have to be affectionate right now, they just were. Dillon smiled a little and wrapped his arms lightly around the younger male's waist, grinning as he said, "So has it been long enough for your powers to stop affecting me?" He was just teasing now, trying to lighten up Ziggy's mood the way the other usually did for him. It was kind of nice, getting to be close to him and play a bit. The 'torture' the other had put on him had really only lasted for that night and not even all of it, so he was pretty sure this was safe to do.

The other ranger looked like he was considering something for a time and then leaned down to kiss him. This kiss didn't have that same overpowering magical feel of perfection like the first had, but it also didn't feel bad or unpleasant. It was a mortal touch, not one from the full deity, however, it was soft, it was sweet, and it felt right.

After the kiss, Ziggy leaned back and pet Dillon's hair some, grinning. "And here I thought you weren't the romantic type," he teased.

It took Dillon a moment to think of the proper response. What he finally decided was grabbing the other's shoulder and yanking him into another deep and passionate kiss. This seemed to have the desired effect of shutting up the younger male's teasing, and it had the added bonus of possibly leading to other things, which was also really nice.

–

"So you guys won't be sticking around then?" Scott found himself asking Marcus, still a bit amazed by this whole business.

This was all really strange for the team – first the rain and Dillon's dreams, then Ziggy coming back from the dead and informing them that he and Dr. K were deities, then Marcus, Flynn's mom, and Summer's old butler showing up saying that not only were all of them deities, but so was Venjix's General Crunch. Really, if it were someone other than his brother, the red ranger might've had a really hard time taking this in. As it was, he was presently just trying to get a good idea of the scope of events.

His elder brother chuckled before patting his shoulder, "Would if we could, little brother. That's one of the problems of having created this world – most of us negatively affect the balance of the world with our presence." He did genuinely seem sorry about that, and really Scott didn't blame him.

"Most?" Summer chimed in now, walking over to sit on the couch once more. Angellus had gone for a walk on his own today and the blonde was content to just stay home at the moment. He didn't need to baby her anymore, after all, and it had probably been a while since he'd been in the mortal realm.

The fiery god nodded, smiling, "Yeah. Lalai is fine so long as she stays in the wastelands – plants grow more rapidly around her which is okay for the world right now, provided she's outside of the city. Fires spontaneously show up around me, Cre causes storms, Andalucia messes with water of an area – which again, not too bad. Angellus and the Dreamer are the ones it gets the most iffy with. Angellus starts influencing things with his very nature, making them magical and that leaves them a bit uncontrollable. Ziggy tends to actually be a natural balancing force when the rest of us are around – if it's just him, though, usually it results in people having odd luck or dreams so he tends to be the safest out and about."

Scott stopped, turning to look at his brother for a moment, "But what about the weird rain storms?" he asked, remembering that stifling feeling that seemed to coat him when it rained like that.

Marcus laughed loudly at that, already having a feeling what his brother was thinking, "That doesn't actually happen that often, and usually only when he's really upset or thinking too hard. Dreamer tends to be pretty easy going but being mortal depresses him sometimes because he gets a bit sappy and guilty about what his gifts have done to the world."

Summer rested her head on the arm of the couch, watching the two for a few moments before she asked, "So why did that storm hurt so much?"

This time, the former-pilot deity took a few moments before he answered. "Because it comes from the power of a deity other than yours. We can't all flair up our full magic here at once or things would just break down. The rain came directly from Dreamer's power to remind his Champion to find him, so it overpowered the rest of you."

As his brother spoke, the red ranger paced around the room, thinking a bit. "Since we're your Champions, does this mean you're going to actually give us a better way to fight Venjix?" he asked finally, suddenly wondering just where his brother's loyalties lay. They were deities – they destroyed the world all the time. What's to say they even cared enough to help them beyond letting them live through the initial Venjix attack.

Marcus grinned now, "Good to see you're thinking things through – we are. Andalucia's been working on making an upgraded version of the ranger tech to integrate the powers we will give you. You'll also have regular powers too that will-"

"They will improve your unmorphed capabilities as well as making you all better when morphed. I've been reconfiguring your link to the biofield and attempting to make it more stable. We aren't on particularly good footing just yet, however, lacking one Ranger Operator and one deity," Dr. K cut in, entering the room and stiffly walking past to fetch something she'd left on the counter.

Scott stopped, looking at her as she spoke. "Lacking one Operator? We've got a full team of 7 though – I thought that was all of the suits you made."

The smaller girl rolled her eyes, "My brother was not meant to get the suit – Series Green was reserved initially for my Champion," she seemed a little regretful of this – but then, K had always been iffy about Ziggy being a Ranger.

"If you didn't know you were making suits for the Champions, how did you make exactly enough?" Scott pointed out.

His brother chuckled, waving a hand a bit, "That was us. We had this all set up beforehand, and just left the memory of how many champions there would ultimately be in her head. We would've only provided for 6, but we found out very early that Cre's power split itself between a pair of fraternal twins."

Summer glanced between the two before raising a brow, "How were you guys even supposed to make sure that your Champions ended up as the Rangers to begin with?"

"You guys are technically the only ones qualified. No matter what form she's in, Andalucia's always been picky and so it wasn't hard to just tweak the powers a little to make sure they only worked with someone directly aligned with a deity. That's actually the only reason Dreamer's worked – he counts as directly aligned because he is a one. You can't get more direct than that." Marcus seemed cheery and had a fun air about him as he explained all this, and it was easy for the blonde to see just why Scott had looked up to his older brother so much. For the deity of fire, the other was pretty cool.

Scott sighed and shook his head again – he seemed to be doing that a lot lately - and moved to sit on the couch, "So we have the wrong ranger, we're missing a deity, and the world's insane. How are we going to fix that?"

A new voice answered him now, "We're still debating that part." Lalai entered, letting Summer and Scott get their first chance for a good look at the Goddess. For the most part, she'd been away or spending time with her family, so they hadn't been able to take in her looks, but now they could and they were quite striking.

Lalai was average in height with a somewhat plump figure and long honey colored hair that she had braided small white flowers into. Her eyes were a warm, tender blue, and her cheeks were quite rosy. It was easy to see where the softness in Flynn's face came from, since he looked so different from his weatherbeaten father at times. But then, what do you expect from a fertility Goddess?

Flynn walked in after his mother, having been spending most of the day with both of his parents and Gemma. He looked around at the group, attempting to get a feel for what the conversation had been before speaking up, "So you all don't really know what you're going to do now?"

"I'm afraid not," Marcus answered from the kitchen area, where he seemed to be grilling hamburgers in mid-air. His brother chose to just not question that.

Lalai smiled proudly at her son, "We had no idea how you would all fare without us, or what form the destructor would truly take. We also had no idea how you would all handle the information when you found out about us, and we could not break you out till the others had awoken." Her voice had that strange accent, but the longer they listened to it, the more it became easy to hear. Summer had asked Andrews about how come a Goddess would have an accent at one point, and he had merely explained that Lalai created language and voice, so she also created accents by proxy.

"Why couldn't you lot just break in and bring them out of their penalty?" Scott grumbled, glaring up at her – she was somewhat easier to be angry with than his brother. But not by much.

The female laughed quietly, a sound like softly singing birds, "We cannot break our own rules and interfere with mortals like that, it would be too jarring. That is why we minorly influenced Deluseya's present situation enough to create a temporary solution till she and her brother were freed."

K looked up from her work and gave the group a dirty look, "You all never DID tell me in what way you influenced me. You had better not be why I ended up in the soup, because so help me, Lily-"

This just rung another laugh out of the goddess, this one more like strong church bells, "I am not so cruel, littlest, do not fret. That is your own nature doing you harm, even as mortal you are still knowledge and mortals at that time had become quite greedy of knowledge. We merely influenced a small decision to make sure you worked on a particular task at a particular point. They had already been debating giving it to you anyway. That is what was set in motion to happen with the destructor as well."

Summer looked between the two for a few moments, finally asking her question. "Why do you call K 'littlest' and refer to her as Ziggy's younger sister? You all created the concept of family at all when you gave mortals the ability to have children."

"You are correct on that, Miss Summer. Originally we were one entity, once consciousness. However, as mortals were created in our image, and mortals changed, so did we, and we split apart, and instead of the mind being ruled by a dominant choice, we chose to rule together and our differences, the differences in the very world itself, brought us to grow and change our creation in different ways." Angellus, with his wispy hair and patient face, had entered now and gone to sit by the kitchen counter. He looked younger than the others, in a way, but also so much older.

Marcus grinned, "Pretty much we just all became our own people, rather than just facets of decisions. It's a lot more complicated than that, but it's also not really important to the scheme of things right now."

"Who we are is dictated both by our powers, our personalities, and our ways of dealing with mortals, as well as the perception of us by those mortals. For some time, we still appeared to mortal beings and interacted with them, and the forms we chose and how we behaved helped skew those representations – we appeared as you would all imagine us because of our behaviors and actions, and over time, we chose features we liked as well, and the two meshed." Lalai spoke so gently and softly, it made her words really hit home.

Her voice came through natural things because she was fertility, earth, nature itself. Lalai was the one stories hailed as Mother Nature, and she looked like a plump motherly figure because that's how she addressed and treated mortals – with love and tenderness, treating them like her children, especially because she had given them the gift of being able to have children. Her nature as a goddess made her appear so far above mortals and yet so similar to them.

Scott looked between them and his brother before speaking again, "Is that why you and Angellus look and act more fancy than Marcus and K do?"

K made a little pout at that, but his brother grinned widely. "Not quite – it's very rare that Andalucia lets her power show since it's generally very upset and wild when she does. She prefers to blend in. Myself, I find this form comfortable and would rather keep with it than look stronger than I need to. Lalai's looks tend to be comforting and she enjoys them, so they are visible. If you were to meet a fully power Cre, he'd be in his natural state, and Dreamer flits between states depending on his mood. He generally only appears his full self in dreams though so as to not frighten others."

"That and should most of us enter into our true forms fully, there would be massive damage. Lalai is life and I am light, so it is easy for us to maintain these forms. Fyre would burn you all and Andalucia would drown you. From what I've been told, she did drown one of your number by mistake." Angellus seemed to be the most simplistic with his explanations, but also the most easy to understand. Marcus was still friendly and his usual self, but he knew concepts so far beyond them that it was hard to simplify them back to human standards.

About this point a disgruntled noise came from across the room. Zigs stood there in what looked like pajama bottoms and a t-shirt that was a good deal too big for him and black. "Did you all just decide this is where we're having our meeting?" he asked quietly. "Cause I gotta say, the living area of the Garage's a bit cramped for that."

The entire group took this time to look at him and the young god shifted awkwardly. He looked rather disheveled, moreso than usual, but the air around him was also a good deal more muted. His bangs fell over his bangs more heavily than usual, though with the same weight, and the shadows over and under his eyes seemed darker and more prominent. Ziggy's entire aura actually hummed with a strange power, only barely being restrained – restrained mostly, by the light exuding off of Angellus as the artificial sun of the city beat down outside.

"Mmph, dim it, you," he seemed so quiet pointing at his colleague as he said this and walking over the fridge to get out the juice and a couple of glasses. They all noticed that was decidedly Dillon's favorite juice being poured into the one. "I'm in a better mood than I was last night but I am still not up for your meetings just yet. I will tell you when I've come to my decision." And with that, he was just gone, not even bothering with the stairs.

K rolled her eyes, "Yes it's just fine and dandy for everyone to cluster around and make decisions. But no, I have to go plan how to get my Champion back! Or how to break any of this to her! She won't take it well!" The girl seemed decidedly upset about this and immediately darted back to her lab. It was like her brother's appearance had been a cue that it was okay for her to sneak away from the group, like she'd only been held there on the possibility that she was required to, but if he wasn't going to stay, she didn't have to.

"That's part of why they're always seen as siblings," Marcus commented, noticing Scott's eyes idly shifting between the pair as he realized all of this. "She's more timid and fears decisions. He's generally more carefree but took responsibility for her and others. Dreamer's always had a soft spot for children because he sees them as new and innocent and a version of our creation we couldn't foresee in the very beginning."

Scott shook his head, attempting to process this, "I guess we should learn more about your lore and abilities but right now, I just – this is getting to be a bit too much." He stood up slowly and shook his head yet again. He was doing that so much – to clear out the thoughts or just to try and express how much he was having a hard time accepting things?

"Maybe we should just all take a break from this for now. None of you lot are ready for your decisions yet, and we're not quite ready to fully be Champions, plus we don't know when Venjix will strike next. Why don't we just worry first and foremost about keeping ourselves sane and in shape till anything new is ready and workable?" Summer suggested and it seemed that was at least acceptable.

Little did they know that away in Venjix's laboratories, a procedure was beginning that was going to make their job retrieving the last champion just a bit harder. Venjix didn't like the emotional and human state his general had been bothering him too much. She was getting too close to the other humans, their natures affecting her. And this strange powered rain had been the last straw. Now it was time to make sure she didn't stray again.


End file.
